What’s been up with Mohamed Diarra’s usage, and will he suit up vs. #12 Tennessee?

NC State is going to need Mohamed Diarra gainst #12 Tennessee this Saturday. But can they count on him playing?

Diarra had 18 rebounds in the win over Boston College. He had 25 combined in his first two games of the season. He’s 6’10”, has great reach and he is tied for the team lead in blocks. So what’s the deal with his playing time?

Diarra played 48 minutes in the first 2 games of the season. Then he played just 14 against Charleston Southern, followed by 7 against Vanderbilt. Then he played 13 in a highly contested game against BYU, followed by 5 against Ole Miss in a 20-point blowout.

Was Diarra falling out of favor with the staff, or was he hurt?

Well, against Boston College he played 35 minutes, scored 8 points, and grabbed 18 boards. You could say he was the player of the game that night.

But then we turn around and see him play just 14 minutes against Maryland-Easter Shores, followed by a DNP coach’s decision against UT Martin.

So what the heck is going on with Diarra’s usage? Keatts was asked about it after the game on Tuesday.

Here is what he said…

“Mohamed Diarra tonight was a little banged up, and I wanted to see if we didn’t need him. I wasn’t going to play him. He obviously went through practice yesterday. We went through shoot around this morning, and if I could give him today, and we’re going to be off tomorrow, I thought it would help him. Going into the game, if we needed him to play, I was going to play him. He was able to play, but I just wanted to give him another day of rest.”

Ok, so from the looks of it, Keatts is holding out Diarra and playing him on an ‘as-needed’ basis. Maybe there is a little lingering injury from that ankle that was bothering him at the start of the year. But does that explain the lack of minutes vs. BYU and Ole Miss?

I guess we’ll find out a lot more on Saturday when State faces off against a big, physical Tennessee team.

If Diarra can go, Keatts is going to need him.